Cancer biomarker discovery in saliva by mass spectrometry

Abstract

BIOMARKER APPLICATION IN CANCER Biomarkers can be defined as a measurable indicators of cellular, biochemical, or molecular changes between normal and abnormal biological processes detectable in tissue or body fluids. [3,4] A biomarker may be classified as: (1) serve as an indicator of risk of developing disease, (2) identify subjects with sub-clinical disease, (3) aid in diagnosing apparent disease, (4) establish disease severity, and (5) predict disease prognosis. [5] Thus, due to its widespread application, the field of biomarker research has gained significant momentum amongst academic researchers, clinicians and the pharmaceutical industry for different diseases such as cancer, [6,7] Alzheimer's, [8] leptospirosis [9] and autoimmune diseases.